Milwaukee –Instead conducting a normal shootaround in preparation for Wednesday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty Williams put his players
through an extended teaching session to improve their execution.

He has mostly seen flawed execution, especially from his starters in the first quarter, that's led to back-to-back losses on the road against the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors.

The Pelicans (22-29) will close out their three-game road trip against the Bucks, who have the worst record in the NBA at 9-42, before heading on the All-Star break.

``This is a young group that we have to stay on
all the time about all the fundamentals,’’ Williams said. ``It’s starts
with me, we need to make sure we do better job making sure guys know
what they need to do.’’

Five minutes into Sunday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center, the Pelicans were already trailing by an 11-point deficit. By the second quarter, the Nets had built a 27-point lead before cruising to a 93-81 victory that ended the Pelicans' two-game winning streak.

In Monday’s 108-101 loss to the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre, the Pelicans allowed 61-percent shooting in the first quarter and fell behind again by a 11-point deficit after getting outscored 31-20.

Forward Anthony Davis, who will play in Sunday night’s All-Star Game at the Smoothie King Center, has combined to miss 10 of 13 shots in the first quarter during the past two games, despite averaging 21.5 points. Gordon totaled just six points in the first quarter in those same two games and 7-foot-2 starting center Alexis Ajinca hasn't grabbed a rebound in the first quarter during the entire trip.

``All we’ve got to do is stay in front of people and be aggressive early
on,’’ Gordon said.``Our bigs got to protect the rim
like they did in the past. Offensively we’ve got to attack the rim
more.’’

The Pelicans' starters were outscored by the Raptors' starters, 86-52, despite Davis' 19 point effort.

``Our starters have to play a lot better,'' Williams said. ``The bench has been decent for us the last couple of games. If we can put two of them together, which we we need to, it would be a great way to end this trip.''